A Republican? Must not be a safe district.
Baker is the most popular governor (perhaps most popular politician) in the US. He's been enjoying a
75% approval rating in a heavily Democratic state, largely for doing things like this.
He's done a very good job in Massachusetts, which has the lowest unemployment rate in the country (well, did at least up to April, not sure about May), the highest wages, the best school system, and he's closed a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit, as well as other populist measures (tolls removed on the T, two successful MBTA seasons after 5 disastrous ones, helped GE move its corporate HQ to Boston, new tech jobs, unveiled free college plan w/ Democratic mayor of Boston, and he's worked really well with the Democratic legislature in the state, criticized Trump on Climate deal, criticized Trump on immigration, criticized Trump on anti-LGBTQ, criticized trump on firing Comey).
There are three Democrats who have announced they'll be running against him in 2018, but so far, none are really able to gain any footing.
Privately he's a very nice, personable, soft-spoken person who seems genuinely interested in listening to people. Had the chance to meet him at a teacher's union event last year. He's also a giant of a man.. like 6'7" with enormous hands. I'd love to see Baker, Comey, and Obama take on Trump, Kushner, and Bannon in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. It'd be like NBA Street when you get Stretch, Yeti, and Bonafide on a single team.
It's hard to have a low approval rating in MA, to be fair.
You might be forgetting Jane Swift
But for what it's worth, Baker has had a higher approval than Deval Patrick and Mitt Romney; Patrick was still a popular governor, Romney was initially popular as well but waned as he focused on a national career. You are right that Massachusetts always has a blindspot for some of its politicians, considering that something like 4 or 5 speakers of the MA house had been indicted
in a row, and yet they all enjoyed relatively high approval ratings from their constituents even when they were facing criminal charges.
well, he vetoed the HC reform but it was pushed through by 2/3rds majority.
Not really... Romney enacted the health care reform bill, but line-item vetoed 8 sections of it, which the MA legislature over-rode eventually. The MA governor has line-item veto authority, so he can sign any appropriations bill while vetoing specific elements of it. THe biggest veto at the time was the equivalent of the employer mandate (Called the 'Assessment' in MA), which Romney vetoed because he wanted it either cut down from 11 employees to 8, or from ~$300/employee penalty to ~$150/employee penalty. THe legislature ended up passing it as written after over-riding the veto.